What is one of the Bing stories this morning? In our old neighbourhood in Toronto on Old Mill Drive, sewer workers are trying to recover the $3-million micro-tunnelling machine which got trapped near Bloor Street last year. You can't imagine how the residents are responding, Old Mill Drive is a prestigious street. There's noise, mud and daily floods of constructions vehicles. That would not be a happy place.
The plan was to go 18 metres down to get below the subway. But on the way down it hit underground steel tiebacks which had been part of a nearby condo building construction. Oops. The headline says $9 million is being spent to rescue the boring machine.
When I look at the google map for Old Mill Drive, the pictures were taken in November 2021 and all the trees lining the street are boxed for construction. I would assume that's because of the new vast condo that went in on the corner of Bloor West. That would have been its own mess. As we google down from 43 to 54 Old Mill it suddenly turns to June 2021 with those beautiful leafy trees overhanging the street. Such a lovely street that goes down to and over the Humber River and on past the Old Mill, once an historic heritage building.
I hadn't thought about it but Old Mill would be a problem for flooding. It was one the areas hard hit by Hurricane Hazel, and has a memorial to it. The Humber River has significant changes in water levels at various times of year. It was a primary route to get into Lake Simcoe and from there to Georgian Bay. It was called the Carrying Place Trail. The evidence of archaeological digs shows that human settlement has been there for almost 10,000 years. The Humber River watershed is the largest river system in the Toronto region, covering over 900 square kilometres.
What do you think of our Spring display? This was at RBG last weekend in the conservatory. Packed full of beautiful spring blooms. | 
